honey and supernovas
by quorra laraex
Summary: She dances in the rain in the middle of the night. — Jack/Rapunzel


**note:** so not going to lie, i started this fic before RotG was even released lol. this was inspired from Swan Princess' This Is My Idea scene where Odette and Derek are growing up throughout the years.

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**honey and supernovas  
**_(with heart shaped bruises and late night kisses)_

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The very first time he looks into her eyes is when he's merely six years old and he didn't think anything could look so magical. She has this goofy wide smile he's not used to seeing on people—

(mainly because he rarely evacuated his own house)

—with shiny, golden hair, as if it came straight off the sun (which he ironically stayed away from) underneath a crown of daisies that it seemed like she picked from the garden of the Royal Castle. He doesn't know why, or what actually gave him the mental push to stray from his guardian and through the trimmed bushes and into the garden she was waltzing around in, but that's when their eyes first meet. And wow, oh _wow_, he cannot look away.

She stares at him with a happy look that descends into confusion and he finally remembers to take a breath.

"Hey, you! You shouldn't be here!" he panics, grabbing her tiny palm in his and rushing her off the castle's property. She notices the way his hand feels like ice.

"Get your hands off the princess!" a guard in slightly rusted silver armor calls out, shrugging him off pathetically and onto the ground as soon as he catches sight of the two kids.

Her voice is sweet, like honey. "Leave him alone!" The stranger squeals at the knight before pushing him away. She hunches over him, and for a second, he doesn't even want to get up off his arse. How could he have not known? She was the _heiress_. "Are you okay?"

He's about to say a quick thanks, but that's when his guardian comes trailing by to grab him by the arm and scold him for harassing _thy highness_. He rolls his eyes before seeing her humble and bubbly face. So this was the daughter his father had been talking about; the one he's been constantly told that he was going to marry.

Before his family enters through the proper way (which had been through the iron gate in the front part of the castle with its splashing fountain and identical trees around it, he notices the way the air is so warm here, and he's never felt this homesick before—

Until he sees her wide, milk white smile before the copper doors of his visit, and for a second or two, he forgets.

"It's nice to meet you, Prince Jack," Rapunzel greets, because this is the meeting they were supposed to have if he hadn't been a stupid prick ten minutes ago. And of course, he would know her name. He'll hear about her and her family literally everywhere. The talk of other kings and queens and princesses were pretty much inescapable.

The grin that appears on his face is boyish and toothy, and it instantly vanishes when his mother pats him on the back as a signal to him. Returning a scowl and rolling his young, bright eyes, he grabs Rapunzel's hands and (against his will—since his mother had undeniably threatened him) plants a kiss on it. And then he ignorantly states a sentence he's rehearsed and memorized about twenty eight times.

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

—

By the time he's ten, he stops playing with her. They say he's undeniably shy, but he can only roll his eyes. She glares daggers at him and sticks her tongue out since he doesn't want to play dress up or dolls, and when he doesn't seem fazed, that's when she throws the punches when their parents aren't looking.

Sly, sly girl.

His family visits her a rather lot due to the stupid marriage arrangement. Thus, (typically out of his control and his utter annoyance) being with the princess was utterly inescapable.

She's feisty, a total brat, and it's just the way she braids her hair out in two little tails on her head that urges him to yank it—(she was _completely_ asking for it!, if he may say so himself.)

And when she pretends to cry, his mother scolds him. His eyes shift toward the blonde brat behind his irritated mom, who sends him teasing smirks. Typical.

That is the very moment Jack decides he hates her.

—

When he's thirteen, he's surprised to see the southern royal family's carriage outside of his castle in the snow. The intricate carvings on the wooden rims of the outer surface detail the family's crest, and the gold embroidery matches the hair that pops out once the door opens.

Coat after coat after coat and he laughs once they meet eyes because she looks like life sized marshmallow. His father, King of the northern region, comes to greet the king and queen after he tells Jack to stop pointing his tiny fingers at the princess. Rapunzel scowls and he realizes he can't contain his laughter at all. She's got metal on her teeth and darker freckles on her cheeks.

"You look horrendous," his arms are clutching his stomach and there's a shit eating grin from ear to ear that makes her glow red in frustration.

Their families eat a Thanksgiving meal in joyous laughter, discussing of many things that include the climate, the children, and of course, visitation.

(much to their dismay)

/

This is all against her will. Despite her protests and daily complaints, her mother continues to _kill_ her with these goddamn gatherings. When the blonde fishes her hair into a lazy braid that night, (why even bother to look nice for someone so immature and annoying?) she asks, "Why do I have to marry such an arrogant as—?"

Her mother interrupts her with fierce eyes and pursed lips. "Enough already. Just at least _try_ to enjoy."

She acquiesces, wrapping her scarf tighter around her neck before exhaling a sigh of smoke when she exits. She pockets her thoughts away back into her mind and forgets as she steps out onto the snowed cement and sets out to look for the blue-eyed boy she's known for almost all her youth. She isn't surprised to see him hiding behind a tree with a lanky boy named Hiccup, pyramid of snowballs ready to be fired at her.

The princess runs and dodges and leaps and ducks, until the last ball of ice hit her on the shoulder proving her techniques fruitless. And then the two boys are running, farther away from her and she tries her hardest to catch at least one of them. But then they're climbing a stupid ladder that Jack eventually rolls up before she can grab a hold of it when his stupid arse is sitting in a tree house with a stupid sign reading _no girls allowed_.

"Grow up," Rapunzel rolls her eyes and marches toward the castle to entertain herself to a cup of hot chocolate.

"Have fun talking to your animals," his snarky voice breezes through behind her.

How could she _ever_ enjoy her time here?

—

Jack is fourteen when he hears the news that had travelled with accelerating velocity. Thy highness of the South had passed away of sickness.

Young and stupid, Jack did not know how to approach such a touchy subject. He offered his condolences to thy Majesty, whom sat grimly at the opposing end of the dining table of his own father. The entire meal drowned in a somber atmosphere. When Jack found the bravery to spare a look at the princess, she was looking down at the bowl of soup untouched, unmoving. And when her eyes flickered to his, he immediately turned away. He hadn't ever seen her this way, timid and broken. Her eyes said it all and it left an uncomfortable weight in his stomach that he couldn't seem to alleviate.

Left unspoken and needing air to allow his focus to strengthen from the heavy, tensioned air of his castle, he was surprised to find her in the garden later in the evening.

"She—she said she'd be okay by the time I'd get back," Rapunzel mutters under her breath. Her throat is tight and her eyes are wet and completely forgetting the fact that this was _Rapunzel_ sobbing in front of him, he envelopes her frame against him, his arms wrapped tightly around her fragile body. He personally made a vow (if the time their betrothal actually came around) that he'd do everything he can to make sure he'd never see her so dissembled and heartbroken again.

He hushes her, holding her tight and ignores the way the top of her head tickles under his nose. He wants to tell her things that will lighten her state, but understands that no words can comfort her, settling with breathing in the scent of her sweet shampoo with the dampening of tears on his chest while he drew circles along the arch of her back with his thumbs.

And for her, it was enough.

—

The Frost prince brings his friend—what's his name again?—oh _right_, Hiccup, with him on his journey back to her land, and she smirks when she sees their horses come to a halt before her gate. She pins her even longer golden locks up with a pin and tightens her corset just a bit to fit her body snuggly.

Flourished with hormones, needs, and inevitable girlish ways, payback was going to be hell for him.

/

And indeed it was.

"Don't tell me you're jealous!" Hiccup waves his spaghetti arms around, much to Jack's annoyance. They're standing behind an enormous, exquisitely designed pillar in her ballroom, Jack stubbornly kicking nothing on the tiled, marble floors.

The taller boy crosses his arms in front of his chest before he scowls and leans back, balancing on his feet to glance over at the princess, fiddling with her (softgoldensoftgoldensoft) tresses whilst eyes glimmering and teeth bare and shining before a masculine guard with brown, flimsy hair and facial hair. _Flynn_, Jack believed.

Then the silence within the elegant room shifts, erupted by her fit of giggles as this Flynn (_shouldn't he be on duty_?, he thinks, pissed.) pushes a strand of long, blonde hair behind her ear. The nerve _he_ had to be talking to her like that. The nerve _she_ had to be enjoying it and to be flirting back.

"You're so jealous," his friend states surely and Jack almost smacks him for being too loud. Angered for reasons he wouldn't allow himself to accept, he storms out, the echoing slam of the door the last thing on his mind. If only he had stayed just a bit longer, because the glowing sixteen year old beauty focused her gaze to where the two had previously hid, with a curve of a smile forming at her lips.

/

This was the summer Rapunzel realized it was rather entertaining having a boy (or two, if one could count Hiccup) over. This was also the very summer Jack realized he was _losing_ it.

It began with the use of a desperate castle guard. Amused with how that had gone, her curiosity grew to how the boy would react to other methods. Alas, she tried.

Bets ensued, innocent bets that soon transcended to her sinister, wicked, games with the loopholes she was too damn eager to find. From what came from a naïve card game of poker (Hiccup being a _not_-so-great dealer) to Jack having to skinny dip in her pool after dark—he knew this girl had much, _much_ more up her sleeve for him.

"Are we allowed to even be here?!" Jack awkwardly exclaims, recalling how they both had to climb down the rose vines clung the sides of their balconies like another layer of paint, which had always been right beside each other. He feels himself turning red. He really hoped she hadn't noticed the flush of his face as he was covering his bare area.

"Obviously not," she laughs, prodding him to jump into the cold. "Hurry up!"

Enthusiastic to get it over with, pride already lost and dignity long gone, Jack hurdles into the pool, enveloped in cool, icy water and it almost felt like home.

When he surfaces, he isn't surprised to see that the spoiled, mischievous, brat of an heiress had ran off with his clothes, already beginning to climb back up to her room. He never hated her more.

—

She stands at sixteen years old when he kisses her for the first time.

She's also sixteen when she kisses him back, forcefully and excitedly. He pushes her away at first, laughing a bit and for once, he has her in a bit of a daze. Her eyes are half lidded and brighter than they've ever been, a supernova in the dark (that could be blamed on the dim-lit room they were sitting in—which was _his_ room. Note: _his_ territory _she_ had invaded because of a stupid feminine fear of a spider she had lost track of in her room—which he doubted, yet not stated, because he could have sworn his castle was _spotless_.)

"Sorry about that," she nervously peeps. "I got carried away."

"No, no, I'm sorry," he looks around panicked because what on earth had he just done? "I was the one that kissed you."

He notices the way her hands fidget in her lap, and the way her hair was still so damn luminescent in the darkness that was his room. Her (very) soft lips are puckered and her (very) warm cheeks are stained red and he wants to kiss her all over again because she's giving him this heat that he finds himself (really) liking.

"I should probably…" she's uneasily biting her lip now, and he doesn't really know how he had the strength to resist her. "…get back to my room."

Before her words finally register in his mind—it had taken some time; it _was_ one in the morning and they had just _kissed_ (_of course_ he wasn't able to process information properly)—he meekly asks, "What about the, um, spider?"

"I'll live," she laughs, blood still rushing. "I—uh—good night, Jack."

Rapunzel slips out of his room before he has a chance to say anything else, inhaling a large breath and fanning herself with her hand before silently creeping down the corridor to her assigned bedroom. She's too preoccupied with her thoughts and the sensation she had felt just mere minutes ago to notice the maid that had witnessed the blonde leave the prince's headquarters in the midst of the night, a knowing smile on her face.

A whisper ghosts past the maiden's lips to be heard by no one. "It's about time."

—

It's the night before Jack's eighteenth birthday when she visits him.

Alone.

Dressed in a hooded cloak and standing in his garden, he had initially thought she'd been an intruder who had thrown a pebble at his bedroom window. He only realized his mistake when she demanded for him to get down.

"This… is a little reversed, isn't it?" he laughs, while stepping onto his window sill. Carefully walking along while clasping the rim of the glass, he reaches forth the pillar nearest his window and slides downward, wet grass below his feet staining the shoes he'd messily slipped on. They'd done this more than once, though this had been the first time she snuck out of her kingdom and came to his.

The soon to be king exposes her as he unveils her cloak. Her hair a mess and mascara smudged and in nothing but a corseted gown, he thinks nothing else in the world could look half as beautiful as the girl in front of him under the moon.

"It's dangerous for a girl like you to be out in the night on horseback," he murmurs as they walk along the rose hedges.

"I left at sun-rise," she tells him softly, before childishly reminding him that she's had riding lessons since she was ten.

He'd have asked her why she was there, but the rain began to sprinkle above their heads and before he could tell her to come along with him back inside the castle, Rapunzel had already made it to the other side of the garden, head up and smile wide, face drowning in the cold droplets and arms raised twirling along the stream of precipitation. Jack could only look at her, curious and soft, amazed at her crazy desire to dance in that kind of rain.

And before they both know it, she's kissing him.

Adrenaline coursing through veins and warmth beneath the cold ignited under their skin, chests heaving and no stopping, Rapunzel tangles her slender, nifty fingers in his wet, white hair and he runs his palms down her slim waist, pulling her against him. When they break apart, there are no apologies said.

The two get carried away, and innocence held onto since they had met, is forgotten.

When she awakes in the morning to come, her eyes roam across his chest to warm oceanic orbs that had been staring down at her sleeping self beside her, she whispers with a tired, sweet-laced voice, "Happy birthday."

—

When she kisses him on the day she wears a silk white gown and crimson paint on her lips, nothing is really all that different.

They're still the little, silly, innocent six year olds that met on her lawn all those years ago due to a marriage that was in the hands of their parents. And they both realize that this arranged betrothal wouldn't have even mattered in the prelude.

She'd always been his to begin with.

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_fin_.

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**note:** So I'm not that proud on how I ended this. I changed the plot of this so much, man. Anyways, please tell me what you think!


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